Tuesday, July 08, 2008

What a great way to honor someone who is "retiring!" Voicethreads & wikis

I feel like an awestruck child looking at my first fireworks show. Who am I that such wonder should come my way?

And yet, tonight, on wow2, I was totally shocked to have such kindness from many of you. You made a tribute to me of encouragement and kindness in celebration of the last night on the show as an official co-host.

After a long day of teaching, I'm so exhausted, and yet, I've listened to every voicethread comment and looked at every picture on the tribute wiki. You have given me one of the greatest gifts I've ever received!

In the voice thread below, I've truly recorded all of my thoughts to you and how I feel.

Though spent, I am exhilerated.

This is a great way to honor someone and the model Jennifer created is beautiful:

And, how on earth did it stay a secret?
Here is a copy of the letter I just posted to the home page of the wiki:

"Dear friends,

Thank you for reaching through the Internet and encouraging me. This is such a kindness! The educators around the world are truly a welcoming and noble group of people. I am happy to call you friends and colleagues.

I'm very grateful to the amazing edtechtalk.com channel -- the most amazing group of webcasters in education. I hope we can figure out a way for me to help in any way possible the amazing efforts of these pioneers in education. I plug the podcasts there every chance I get. Also, I encourage every educator who wants to webcast to join the webcast academy and become a Webhead. We need more webheads so we can have more podcasts. It is time for science, history, literature, languages podcasts to crop up. Share, Share, Share. We are much more together than we are a part.

Of course, I will always, always, be a women of web 2 and am grateful for Jennifer, Sharon, and Cheryl and the many hours we've all put into making the show the very best it can be. I will remain a loyal listener and fan as they take it all to the next level and will continue to support the show in any way I can.

Thank you for taking the time! Let me point this out. This wiki has touched me profoundly, so, what could you do for someone retiring in your school, district, or organization? Make a voicethread like the one that is here. I LOVE THE VOICETHREAD! It is a gift to the person and to their family.

Everyone wants to know that they mean something, that they've left a legacy -- ESPECIALLY TEACHERS. What better way to do this than to have voicethreads to celebrate the work that they have done.

The best way to thank me is to do this for someone else. I can tell you this, when people want to pay tribute to other teachers by leaving a voice thread message, somehow the whole thing comes alive. Learning to edit a wiki to leave a comment does something. I think this is a great thing to do for anyone you want to honor.

The tears upon my cheeks tonight have shown me the power and gratitude that I feel.

Because we can give thousands of plaques and thank yous, but it is the stories of those we touch that make our legacy. It is not about awards, it is about the lives we touch and the people who we've helped live better lives. Every good teacher deserves this.

Thank you for not only affirming me, but in affirming to me the desire to pass on the feeling I have right to other teachers who deserve the thank you... and this world is full of them.

Turn around and do this to thank another teacher or educator.

I am forever grateful for this tribute, it is truly one of the pinnacles of my career.

If it is possible for me to feel that words are insufficient, now is the time! But I'll say this, using these tools to honor the teachers among us may be the single greatest "happy accident" we've had in a long time. Try it and share it.

Every Classroom Matters (Recent Shows)

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